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I find many people who are against transit, don't even realize what good transit is. The bus that gets stuck in traffic and only shows up once every hour and is rarely on time is not good transit.
If we really want to make an impact in climate change we need to address our transportation in this country. Building walkable cities and competitve transit will do a lot to reduce energy usage for transportation and would encourage more effecient building/zoning in our cities.
Also, when you are "stuck behind a bus" that's a lot of cars not on the road that you could be stuck behind instead. Or, you know, people who otherwise might not be able to get to work, school, doctors, family, etc.
The idea tansit is only for the poor is absurd, but seems to be the general sentiment in Canada. This is especially absurd because many people are not capable, comfortable, or otherwise don't desire to drive.
That attitude is self-reinforcing in the presence of bad transit. Bad, unreliable transit results in people who have a choice choosing to drive. The ones left using that shitty transit are those who have no other option.
The bigger problem is with our politics and how we engage with it. The response to bad transit in too many cases is to vote in some clown who will stop investing in it and effectively make it worse. The response should be to vote for someone who will improve transit.
Its like when they build a totally unsafe bicycle gutter thats filled with snow banks for half the year then claim "see bike lanes don't even work".
I didn't say those people were poor but your point is correct.
Edit: for the record "poor" in itself contains so much negative sentiment. Sigh. What a world we have made for ourselves.
You are correct you didn't, however many people who use transit in Canada only use it because they can't afford private vehicle ownership and transit is otherwise the worst option time and convenience wise.